Why the study?
Does an automated telephone reminder system improve medication refill rates in patients with hypertension and/or cardiovascular disease with overdue prescriptions?
Does an automated telephone reminder system improve medication refill rates in patients with hypertension and/or cardiovascular disease with overdue prescriptions?
Automated telephone reminders significantly improve short-term medication refill rates for statins and antihypertensives, but do not significantly impact short-term blood pressure or LDL cholesterol levels.
Telephone reminders were associated with higher refill rates; hypothesis-generating and should not yet change practice.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an automated telephone system reminding patients with hypertension and/or cardiovascular disease to obtain overdue medication refills. The authors compared the intervention with usual care among patients with an overdue prescription for a statin or lisinopril-hydrochlorothiazide (lisinopril-HCTZ). The primary outcome was refill rate at 2 weeks. Secondary outcomes included time to refill and change in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and blood pressure. Significantly more patients who received a reminder call refilled their prescription compared with the usual-care group (statin cohort: 30.3% vs 24.9% [P<.0001]; lisinopril-HCTZ cohort: 30.7% vs 24.2% [P<.0001]). The median time to refill was shorter in patients receiving the reminder call (statin cohort: 29 vs 36 days [P<.0001]; lisinopril-HCTZ cohort: 24 vs 31 days [P<.0001]). There were no statistically significant differences in mean low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and blood pressure. These findings suggest the need for interventions that have a longer-term impact.
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Harrison et al. (2015) studied this question.
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